Jan. 19 Letters to the Editor

Maine Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster had a telephone threat called in to his office. At present, the investigation has not determined who made that call. Yet, Mr. Webster told the press that it was “probably” someone angry about the new Republican governor and legislative majorities. He said that the GOP was going to change the state and “as we change state government, there are some people who aren’t going to like it and are looking to blame somebody.”

Why would he make such a remark without having a clue who really did this? The chairman of the Republican party in Tucson just resigned because of similar threats — made by other members of the Republican party. Go figure! When will we ever learn?

J.M. Bousquet

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Pittsfield

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Policy kills

President Obama has asked the American people not to blame the killings in Tucson on the tea party Republicans for their irresponsible use of weapon terminology and symbols during the recent midterm elections.

As is his custom, he has taken the high road refusing to sink to the level of Palin, Beck, Limbaugh and even George Will. Those people have made millions of dollars with their incendiary speech and that’s all that matters to them. But we don’t have to connect the dots or in this case the cross hairs to see that tea party Republicans have symbolic blood on their hands.

Tea party Republicans, including our new governor and Legislature, want to repeal the Affordable Care Act because they claim it will add to the deficit and “kill” jobs. Where exactly were these deficit conservatives when Bush and Cheney were spending $1 trillion unfunded to cause the deaths of 4,500 brave Americans and 100,000 Iraqis?

Why do these people who are so upset about providing health care to Americans think it’s fine to spend $1 trillion to kill people in a totally unjustifiable war? So as organ transplant candidates die in Arizona because they have no insurance, the tea party Republicans fight to repeal the law that would save their lives.

Words wound, but policy kills.

Christy Kraft

Bangor

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Oxford hold ‘em

On Saturday, the BDN carried an article reporting that some people in Oxford County have expressed surprise that the Oxford resort casino is being built in phases.

To remove any possible ambiguity on this point, phased construction is not news. Black Bear Entertainment is sticking to its original master plan of phased construction, so that the initial phase opens within the next year or so. Then continuous work will proceed until the project reaches full build-out, sometime within the next five years. That was the plan, it is the plan, the plan hasn’t changed nor does BBE intend to change the plan.

One major reason for advancing this master plan is jobs. Rather than erecting a huge construction fence, shutting off the site and not opening the facility until it is completely finished, a phased approach allows BBE to create as many jobs as soon as possible. In a county where the unemployment rate has jumped a full percentage point in just the last two months, that’s a major priority.

Work has begun. We are already employing Maine people, who are hard at work guiding the project through stringent regulatory and permitting processes. Progress is steady and deliberate, and will continue.

Mark Robinson

spokesperson

Black Bear Entertainment

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We need our guns

Here we go again, a nut case in Arizona and Chellie Pingee, our liberal representative to Congress for Southern Maine said on News 6, WCSH-TV Jan. 13, that she thinks we need more gun laws.

If a nut case wants a gun he will find a way to get one. The only defense is a sane person with another gun. If we take away your gun, who will protect you ?

If you think we should not lose our rights that your father and grand father fought for you to have and keep, then contact Rep. Pingree and tell her to leave your gun rights alone.

If a mad man runs over 10 people, should we outlaw cars? If a mad women uses a knife to kill another person, should we outlaw knives? How about baseball bats? Rocks, sticks, bows and arrows?

The price for living free is high, but worth it, many people died for you to have it. Don’t give up any of your rights for so-called safety, that isn’t even real.

David Call

Standish

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Abortion logic

As sons and daughters of God, one of the reasons we come to this earth is to obtain a physical body. Unless the mother’s life is in danger, or in the case of rape, there is no excuse for the deplorably selfish act by doctors and mothers of purposely taking a child’s life. Even in the case of rape, where an innocent woman’s precious chastity has been violated, rather than take the life of an innocent unborn, adoption should be seriously considered.

It is argued that we don’t know at what time in the pregnancy life begins. First off, what right do we have to be so presumptuous as to think we have any right to make such a decision? The giving or taking of life is God’s decision. Secondly, because we supposedly don’t know at what point life actually begins, wouldn’t we, at any point in the pregnancy, err on the side of life?

Lastly, let me render the first and second points mute — nothing dead grows. Therefore, logic dictates that the fetus is alive at conception — otherwise it couldn’t grow, which translated means abortion is murder, plain and simple.

John Calvin, a 16th century reformer, wrote, “If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field … it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light.”

Charles A. Reitze Sr.

Millinocket

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Deplorable message

Paul LePage’s crude and insulting rebuff of the NAACP is shameful. If Gov. LePage was unavailable to make an appearance, so be it — he need only politely decline. And if Gov. LePage has a black son, that’s fine. What’s not fine is referencing his child to excuse his own atrocious behavior.

Our new governor paid little more than lip-service to the importance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, something I would have hoped he would have encouraged all Maine residents to thoughtfully consider and commemorate.

Sadly, this most recent example of Gov. LePage’s character reinforces the grave disappointment and fear I felt upon his being elected. I was worried that we would be pulled not just backward, but downward. And indeed, this seems to be the case.

Gov. LePage began his term by sending the message that the written and spoken word are worth little — a pity in a state that struggles with illiteracy — by jettisoning the traditional inclusion of poetry at his inauguration. Now he’s sent the message that the NAACP and the struggle for racial equality merit neither respect nor support. What a message to send to his son — and to all our sons and daughters of Maine.